Drug Testing of Temporary Agency Workers on the Premises

Hello Comrades!!!

 

Just to see if you have any experience to share in this subject.

 

We have Temporary Workers agencies doing drug testing in premises. I challenged the QA Manager and Human Resources and their response was "I do not know" or "I did not know" . Those statements by themselves raised a flag in my opinion.

 

since we are not set up for this type of activities, my questions are (Usually any suspicions or required testing for employment for employees are sent to out source clinic or hospital):

 

Could this be a cross contamination issue or hazard?

 

Liability or issues in relation to our food defense plan?

 

Legality issues?  (Even though every country is different.) In the US there is always legality issues with everything. :giggle:  

 

Any thoughts will be greatly appreciated.

 

 

Your temp agencies are drug testing their employees on your site, is that correct?

 

Where is this happening? Is this blood or urine or both?  Just having that done in your facility raises many questions with me, also!

Mouth swabs?

Hi Kellio:

 

Legality of drug testing would depend on whether or not the people were notified that this was a condition of employment as well as what Puerto Rico requires.  HR SHOULD know about that, and if they don't, they better find out. 

 

If these workers are employed by the temp agency, then they should not be doing the testing at your site without your permission, IMHO.

 

If the testing is by urine sample and it is collected in the lavatories or away from production, then it may not be much of an issue.  As with anything, maybe doing a risk assessment is a good idea.  I would hope they are not collecting blood in a location that does not have emergency medical treatment available, people who pass out when blood is drawn may need some expert care.

 

Martha

As far as food safety and legality issues would think it would depend on how it is being done.  In my experience the companies I have worked with had a third party handle all testing to prevent bias. 

It is strange to do this on site especially since they're a temp agency. As far as food safety goes I can relate on the aspect that I've had on site health screening that required phlebotomy, that being said just the Band-Aid. We had to supply the phlebotomist with metal detectable band aids.

Is this a food safety related issue? And if yes why?

Is this a food safety related issue? And if yes why?

This is partially a food safety related issue because of the possibility of having urine samples or blood samples being held for a period of time in the facility.  Both those could be the source of microbiological contamination of product in the event of a spill.  Blood is usually collected in glass containers, so that is another source of a hazard.  Urine cups are brittle plastic, another hazard.  If you have a small facility where the collection area will be near the food processing area, it is a problem.

 

Also the collection allows the biological material to be open to the environment, and urine sampling is a messy procedure.  The outside of the containers are always contaminated.

 

There are legal ramifications as well, and that was mentioned just to raise that thought process for the person posting the question.  We sometimes go beyond basic food safety and help out with other issues, too.

 

Martha

Dear freeromios,

 

Well, possibly depending on the drug, i guess if the result is positive, it's maybe an issue, eg worker safety around machinery / people / food ?

 

But i would have anticipated that most Plant Managers would simply have denied access until some plausible context / suitable control system was supplied, and maybe not then either.

 

Rgds / Charles.C

Mouth swabs?

No Mouth Swabs.

Your temp agencies are drug testing their employees on your site, is that correct?

 

Where is this happening? Is this blood or urine or both?  Just having that done in your facility raises many questions with me, also!

Yes, It was happening in our bathrooms and they were urine Samples.

Is this a food safety related issue? And if yes why?

Form my point of view yes if we are not properly set up. The potential for cross-contamination it could be big.

Hi Kellio:
 
Legality of drug testing would depend on whether or not the people were notified that this was a condition of employment as well as what Puerto Rico requires.  HR SHOULD know about that, and if they don't, they better find out. 
 
If these workers are employed by the temp agency, then they should not be doing the testing at your site without your permission, IMHO.
 
If the testing is by urine sample and it is collected in the lavatories or away from production, then it may not be much of an issue.  As with anything, maybe doing a risk assessment is a good idea.  I would hope they are not collecting blood in a location that does not have emergency medical treatment available, people who pass out when blood is drawn may need some expert care.
 
Martha

That was my gut feeling that agencies should do their own.  HR support was not a support.

Thank you for your comments. I could not review your comments right away due to SQF is coming to us in few weeks.

Kellio

Each state in the US has different rules for who can be tested and when they can be. Pre-employment is at the discretion of the company, random testing is usually not common these days (at least here in CT) and can only be done with reasonable suspicion and/or after an accident.

The temp agency did mouth swabs on site prior to new temps starting that day. They are good from (I believe) 2-48 hours after taking common drugs. Urine is up to 14 days. I'm very surprised the agency was doing that on premise. Regardless of food safety and biological hazards, the legality of that could bring about a lawsuit. Only licensed third party facilities should be doing that as there is HUGE room for error or contamination. Mouth swabs are pulled from a sealed package and done in front of you.